"There is a time That stands still When the needle breaks And vibrates the frequency of our death." From the song "Tepid" by Primitive Man

Generally cover art for an album is a good way to peek inside the release and kind of guess what you will be getting without actually listening to the record itself, and with this debut full length from Predatory Light that is certainly true. Just from seeing the cover art you can guess that what you are about to get is mysterious, dark and purely sinister and that is exactly what you get once you begin listening. Predatory Light takes black metal and warps it and melds together several different styles of black metal to create a sound that is unique, intriguing and entirely memorable. This self titled full length from these blasphemers catches your attention immediately and captivates you for the entirety of your listen.

Predatory Light plays a soul peeling and mind warping brand of black metal that ultimately invades your mind and corrupts your very being. There are a few things that separate Predatory Light from the majority of the black metal group and those would be that they mix different black metal styles together from different parts of the world and their music is melodic as well. Even though there are different brands of black metal at play here, Predatory Light does a great job of mixing them all together and keeping their sound melodic but harsh and flesh ripping all at the same time.

This entire six track album is pumped full of blasphemous images and scorching soundscapes that blister your very flesh and boil your blood. Each song is a twisting darkened mass of black metal that clouds your mind and rips your soul to shreds. This entire album is a behemoth and doesn’t hesitate to crush you under its monstrous foot and cast you down straight to the netherworld. As soon as you begin listening you get pelted with blistering and damning black metal and Predatory Light doesn’t lighten up on the onslaught until the final note is played.

Not only does Predatory Light provide you with a maelstrom of black metal, but they also give you a blackened and abyssal atmosphere as well. Predatory Light shrouds you in abysmal darkness and as the album plays on you can feel yourself sinking deeper and deeper into madness. This record gives off a kind of energy that feels as though the album itself was consumed by an unspeakable evil and bathed in the blood of thousands of enemies and tortured souls. The atmosphere that Predatory Light brings to you is just as poisonous and potent as the musicianship is and with those two combined you get a listen that is life threatening and soul damning.

Each song is riddled with diseased writhing riffs coupled with heavy throat slashing bass lines and tumultuous drumming. The vocals that force themselves out of the shadows and to the forefront of the wall of black metal noise are entirely sinister as they have a great raw quality about them. As mentioned above, no matter how chaotic and no matter how many different styles of black metal are pumped into this record, the music is still melodic and wholly captivating.

This is a memorable listen and an album to behold. With each listen you find something new that you didn’t hear during the listen previous. There is a lot that was put into this record and it will take a few listens to soak in entirely, but when it does it never leaves your rotted mind.

Predatory Light’s debut full length will be released on September 23, 2016 through Invictus Productions.